r trade, and a city of arts and
science, as well as those of the capital of an empire and of an
American colony, where men of all classes assemble to make their pile
of gold, but when this is secured hurry away to spend their winnings
in other places.

"So far as social conditions are concerned, and these, after all,
concern us most," said the abbe, with a quick look at his listener,
"they are as complicated as the commercial interests of Pesth. Each
class is surrounded, so to speak, with a Chinese wall. Trade and the
stock-exchange are altogether in the hands of Jews and Germans. This
would not be so much an evil were it not that a great amount of
fraudulent speculation goes on, and at every turn of the money market
in Vienna the funds go down. The Hungarian element is made up of
tobacco-merchants and hand-workers; there are, besides these, about
twenty thousand Slavonians from the hills, who are day-laborers. Pesth
is, or should be, the headquarters of national education. It is,
however, not the fashion to support it. It should be also the centre
of science and literature; it is not, however, considered good 'ton'
to cultivate anything but foreign literature. Pesth can boast of very
distinguished _savants_, and of a very haughty aristocracy; but no one
is allowed to enter this magic circle but those who belong to the
upper ten. The whole society is on a wrong footing; each one fights
his own battle, bears his own burden; the finest ideas are lost
because no one understands the other. A common standpoint is wanting.
All healthy life is dying out, full freedom of thought and action
being strangled by the iron laws of the short-sighted government,
which forbids discussion of any kind.

"The Reichstag and the Comitatshaus are both closed. The only free
ground left is that of general society; but here class prejudices step
in. A certain portion of our aristocracy are too indifferent to
trouble themselves to do anything for the general good; the rest are
too fond of their own ease and amusement; they acknowledge no other
aim in life but their own pleasure. There are some, however, who do
know what their duty is, and who would willingly make sacrifices to
fulfil it, but during the last ten years they have suffered such a
loss of income that they are no longer in a position to bear the
expense which would be entailed by opening their houses. There are
others, those most fitted by intellect as well as by position to be
lead